“And one for you as well, Vanessa Reed.”
The color disappeared from her face.
Adrian stared at me in utter disbelief.
“What have you done?”
I gently kissed my daughter’s forehead.
“I protected what was mine.”
And for them, the nightmare had only just begun.
The real hum!liation never happened inside a courtroom.
It unfolded publicly in front of everyone.
Adrian and Vanessa’s wedding was being livestreamed for relatives in Chicago and California who were unable to attend.
No one turned off the cameras when the groom suddenly rushed out of the cathedral.
No one turned them off when he finally came back almost an hour later looking pale and rattled, his tuxedo hopelessly wrinkled.
Two hundred guests watched Vanessa walk beside him down the aisle, her veil crooked and mascara beginning to streak beneath her eyes.
The priest quietly asked whether they wished to continue the ceremony.
Then Adrian’s mother, Margaret, slowly rose from the front row.
“Where were you?”
Adrian said nothing.
